The basic goal of this research is to develop techniques in animals of islet isolation, preservation and transplantation for the treatment of experimental diabetes which can then be safely applied to human diabetes patients. Isolation techniques have been modified by use of a digestion-filtration apparatus which improves the yield of islets from the rat, monkey and human pancreas. Preservation studies of the immune rejection phenomenon will utilize a transplantation chamber for packaging islets. Pancreatectomized dogs have been established as a stable diabetic model for experimental transplantation. The transplantation chamber has been designed to protect donor rat islets from rejection in the diabetic dogs. Currently the use of immunosuppression to prevent rejection and the inability of consistently successful human islet isolation block the progression to safe and effective human diabetic transplantation. It is hoped that the above techniques may eliminate these obstacles and permit practical islet transplantation in man. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Nelson, J., Lacy, P.E., Hirshberg, G.E. "Mega Colom and Autonomic Neuropathy in Diabetic Rats" J. Neuropath. and Exptl. Neurology, 35: 335, 1976.